ASH DIEBACK IS COMING

The tree surgeon has just been and will give me a quote on removing the ash near the house, logging it and taking away the chipped smaller stuff.

He says the dreaded ash dieback is only ten miles or so away in Witherslack. If we get it we will be left with some rhododendrons a young horse chestnut and some sycamores - with the odd holly and hazel in the under layer.

Dieback is caused by Hymenoscyphus fraxineus, a fungus and in three years has spread across the UK. The veins of leaves, usually pale, turn brown. There are blackened dead leaves and in more mature trees death of branches in the crown. Diamond dark lesions appear around the base of dead shoots and where a branch meets the trunk.

The Woodland Trust, of which I am a member are seeking a fighting fund to help deal with the future. 

Their website is www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/fightdisease.

Of course there are other diseases of trees that affect larch, oak and, still, elm.

I do not remember such a wet November. We had a wonderful September/October but now! Gales and downpours, floods and soggy everywhere. Even the overflow carpark at the Swan Hotel at Newby Bridge was under water.
This pic is of the road below the house.

As far as the garden goes digging out the drain from under the pond in the rain is the sum of my labours. I would like to tidy things up but it will have to wait.

Before

After

You can see the liner in the top image. After my digging it has gone down again - but not completely. There is still a substantial chunk with water underneath. Needs thought and action I think.
By Friday the liner had reappeared on the surface and all my work in the rain and mud looks like it was to no avail.

The peanuts in the bird feeders are wet and mouldy. I have had to clear them out and clean them.
Now I can understand why swallows go south for the winter - but why do redwings and fieldfares and geese come here? They should keep on going.
Even our dog has succumbed to the gale and taken it lying down.

So here are more floody pictures and then we can move on.

And though it is dark as I type, gusts of wind batter the house - some up to 60 to 70 mph according to the weather forecasters.

So now it is Thursday afternoon and we have seen a little sunshine. I have cleared away the dead stuff from the hostas and pruned the hydrangea Annabelle. Then it went dark and wet again.

R is off to a piano lesson with A so I am typing the blog.

Time for a wet cuppa decaf tea.